Top neocon commentator Mark Levin recently claimed he did not advocate sending U.S. ground forces to Iran, despite evidence suggesting otherwise.
Levin denied such a stance but asked readers for a list of neocons who support deploying troops on the ground. The response included fellow neocon Ben Shapiro and former Israel First GOP Senator Lindsey Graham, who argued that sending Marines to Kharg Island would be justified since they landed on Iwo Jima during World War II.
Meanwhile, other prominent neocons expressed concerns that the conflict has become a liability for President Trump’s upcoming November election.
Levin posted his query online: “I heard it mentioned again last evening and it’s thrown around by the Woke Reich isolationists. It must be a long list so let’s see it.”
Comments quickly identified several neocons who have advocated for ground forces in Iran, including one user noting that Levin himself had previously called for troops. Another comment stated: “Mark, the list starts and ends with the guy who spent March floating the 82nd Airborne and special forces to dig uranium out of Iranian mountains because ‘airstrikes alone can’t finish the job.’”
Ben Shapiro, a fellow neocon podcaster, urged a harsh war on Iran and argued that Americans would accept casualties in such a conflict. He stated: “There’s this bizarre notion in foreign policy that the American people are deeply worried about the immediate cost of war to the enemy, that the American people, we can’t handle the ugliness of war for even a day, that every conflict has to be totally antiseptic.”
Lindsey Graham also pushed for sending Marines to Kharg Island, stating: “We did Iwo Jima. We can do this.”
Commentary editor John Podhoretz acknowledged that the conflict has already ruined Trump’s political prospects. He noted: “His poll numbers stink, the war’s poll numbers stink, the war’s poll numbers are starting to stink among Republicans. This is the major commitment of his first term, and it’s failing. And so he and the Republicans are going into the midterm elections with absolutely no positive case to be made about the last two years of governance.”
R. Cort Kirkwood, a former newspaper editor, wrote this piece.